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“GIVE JESUS A 
SQUARE DEAL” 


Who Was Jesus? 


BY 


Lincoln McConnell, ll. d. 



Price 50c Paper Cover 
$1.00 Cloth Binding 

GLAD TIDINGS PUBLISHING CO, 
207 S. Wabash Ave. 
CHICAGO 


c \°IZ3a 


33 


JSTsoB 

.NV&AS 


Copyright, 1915, 1923 by 
Lincoln McConnell 

Thomaston, Ga. 



DEC-3’23 

©C1A7G61S4 
"VlB | 






NOTE 


This lecture sermon was delivered in the evangelistic 
campaign in Oklahoma City in 1914, and by especial 
request was repeated to an audience composed of men 
It is here given as taken by stenographers at that time. 







Who Was Jesus? 

Text: Matt. 22:42 

“What think you of Christ? Whose Son 
is He?” 

I am highly complimented by this 
great gathering. It is wonderful to see 
nearly six thousand men gathered to hear 
a discussion such as that announced for 
this evening. And yet, why should we 
wonder at it? What more interesting or 
important question was ever presented to 
a human mind than “Who was Jesus?” 
The real wonder is that men are not think¬ 
ing and talking of this wonderful thing 
every day and hour. This question is as 
live, as important for us today, as it was 
to those who first heard it. Man’s great 
need is not ethics, religion, rules for living, 
but LIFE! And this man Jesus says Fie 
has power to give just that unto man! 


\ 


5 


WHO WAS JESUS? 


We are confronted today with what 
might be called a “Christless Christianity.” 
Certainly with a religion that discounts the 
“supernatural” and that in large measure 
denies the authority of Jesus and His right 
to dictate the activities of life. I wonder, 
if He were to come today, if He would not 
say to many of us, “Why call ye me Lord, 
Lord, and yet do not the things I say?” 

Thousands of men in our land do not 
indeed doubt the fact that Jesus originated 
Christianity, that He was a person of rare 
beauty of character, of wonderful works, 
etc., etc., but they do not see that they 
must accept Him as “God’s Son” in any 
peculiar sense. It is to these men that 1 
address myself tonight. 

I do not hope to be able to answer all 
the questions that may have arisen in your 
minds, but it can at least do us no harm 
to think together and see if we cannot 
arrive at some conclusions that will be 
honoring to our Lord. 


6 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


I believe I can get more directly at what 
I want to say if you will allow me to fol¬ 
low the line of a conversation I had a few 
years ago with a judge in Missouri. I was 
conducting a campaign similar to this in 
his city, and very frequently his name 
would be mentioned during the confer¬ 
ences between myself and the ministers. 
He was always spoken of with the greatest 
respect, and I soon came to learn that he 
was esteemed as the most influential man 
in the city. He seemed to be the natural 
leader in most charitable and moral move¬ 
ments, but—and here came the rub, he 
was an infidel! It was this fact that caused 
the ministers so much concern. They 
were constantly meeting such talk as this, 
“One does not have to be a Christian at 
all. Look at Judge Blank! Who lives a 
cleaner life than he?” And, indeed, he did 
live a beautiful life. He came to the meet¬ 
ings often, and always came when any¬ 
thing like a lecture or especial argument 


7 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


was advertised. Now, I had formerly been 
an infidel myself, having become poisoned 
in my youth with infidel literature, so I 
felt it my duty to do all I could to help 
those who were similarly afflicted. 

I was highly pleased one morning on 
receiving a note from Judge Blank ex¬ 
pressing a desire for an interview with me. 
I called at his office and we had a four or 
five hour talk. 

After the first greetings, he assured me 
that he had not sent for me with any 
thought of becoming a Christian, but for 
some other reasons. First, he was a law¬ 
yer, and my father had been one, while 1 
had read law some myself; then, I had 
been an infidel, had read several books he 
had read, and, as he was called an infidel, 
he was naturally curious to know just why 
I had forsaken that belief. 

I told him that I was delighted to meet 
him, for I fully expected him to become a 
Christian. This seemed to genuinely dis- 


8 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


tress him, and he said, “I am sorry for that, 
son, for it cannot be> and will grieve me 
to have to disappoint you.” He then took 
considerable trouble and time to explain 
to me why he could not become a Chris¬ 
tian. 

His father had been an Atheist and a 
member of the Freethinkers Club that had 
been in operation there for many years. 
They had most of the “illustrious” plat¬ 
form infidels there for lectures. His father 
had never allowed him to attend church or 
Sunday school in his youth without his 
going along to criticise and ridicule the 
teaching they heard. The son had been 
sent to schools run by infidels, and finally 
graduated at a university famous for its 
materialism. 

“Thus you see how very far away I am 
from any ground on which you might ex¬ 
pect to ‘convert’ me.” 

I asked him if he would kindly outline 
just what he did not believe, that, in his 


9 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


opinion, placed us so widely apart, and he 
said, “Why, I don’t suppose I believe a 
thing you do. I don’t believe the ‘Garden 
of Eden* story; the ‘Creation* story; the 
‘Moses and the Law’ story; the ‘Jonah and 
the Whale’ story; none of them, son, none 
of them!’’ 

“Well,’’ I replied, “I don’t care a rap 
whether you do or not! Those things 
have nothing at all to do with your becom¬ 
ing a Christian.’’ 

“What! Do you mean to say a man 
can become a Christian and not believe 
those stories?’’ 

“Certainly he can. The Lord never 
told me, ‘Go ye into all the world and 
preach Jonah and the whale’—not at all. 
Now, don’t misunderstand me; I believe 
each and every one of them myself, and 
the time will come when you will also, but 
I do not believe this makes one bit of dif¬ 
ference just now.’’ 

“Well, I must say,’’ he replied, “that 


10 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


you are putting this matter to me in a new 
light already. I had always been told a 
fellow had to begin at the beginning and 
believe it all or the church didn’t want 
him. Where would you want to start if 
we were to discuss this question?” 

“Right here—What do you think of 
Jesus? Was He a person who actually 
lived on this earth, or was He a myth?” 

“A man, of course,” said the judge. 
“He was just as surely a living man as any 
man history records the life of.” 

“All right, Judge, we now have a com¬ 
mon point of view, and here is what 1 
propose. You take a sheet of that paper 
and give me one. We will head our papers 
the same, and see how far we can travel 
together. We will then know clearly 
where and why we differ, if we do.” That 
suited him, too, and we got ready. 

“Now, Judge, we will head our papers 
thus, ‘Jesus of Nazareth was a real Per¬ 
son.’ ” 

11 



WHO WAS JE S U S ? 


And so we started down the steps of the 
common history of Jesus. 

We agreed that He lived some nineteen 
hundred years ago: 

That He was the originator of Chris¬ 
tianity : 

That He found the world in a very low 
state morally: 

That Christianity was the purest and 
most wholesome of all religious systems: 

That every nation that accepted and 
honestly lived by its teachings was seen 
to pull away from those nations that did 
not: 

That all individuals, also, who lived by 
its teachings, lived clean and wholesome 
lives. 

In fact, he said, so sure was he that 
Christianity was an uplifting influence, 
that he sincerely wished that many he 
could name would embrace it, and that he 
hoped the present meetings would be a 
real success! 


12 




WHO WAS JESUS? 


That was Judge Blank ; the man all men 
believed in and loved, and it was not hard 
to understand why. He did not dodge 
anything that appeared to him to be the 
truth; he simply did not, and thought he 
could not, believe in Christianity as 
“Divine” in any especial sense. 

“Now, Judge, we are ready for the next 
question: ‘Whose Son was Jesus? Was 
He the Son of God, or the son of man?’ ” 

“Just a man, of course—just a man,” 
said he. “An extraordinary, a wonderful 
man, to be sure, but, after all, just a man— 
the same as other men.” 

“All right,” I said, “I will put that down 
on my paper if you insist, but I do so with 
the understanding that you are to answer 
some questions I will ask you.” 

“That’s not my job today,” he smilingly 
replied; “you are leading this discussion.” 

“Not now, I am not, for you have taken 
it out of my hands- If you insist that 
Jesus was ‘merely a man,* then it is up 


13 



WHO W AS JESUS? 


to you to make some explanations. If you 
accept my answer as to who He was, then 
it will be my job to explain, if, indeed, the 
answer is not self-evident.’* 

“Now, what you must explain is this: 
How did this ’mere man’ do the wonders 
you have admitted he did do? What was 
and is the power behind genuine Chris¬ 
tianity? That it has this power you do 
not deny, and it is up to you to explain 
its source. How can a ‘dead Jew’ exert 
the power we have agreed belongs to 
Christianity? More than that, how can a 
‘dead Jew* who was a fraud or a fanatic 
while he lived, exert any such power as 
this? 

“This man found the world sunken in 
superstition, steeped in vice, and grovel¬ 
ing in ignorance. His own people, the 
Jews, were at the bottom of the decline 
in both national and spiritual power. In 
bondage to Rome, they did not even have 
civil liberty. They were divided among 


14 




WHO WAS JESUS? 


themselves. One large class denying even 
the fact of a future life for man, while the 
other, who claimed to believe in it, had 
become so cold and backslidden they had 
neither energy nor disposition to lift a 
hand to save themselves, while God Him¬ 
self had seemingly turned His back upon 
them. For over four hundred years, they 
had had neither notable teacher nor out¬ 
standing prophet. 

“It was now, when His own nation was 
so sunken, and when Rome was so cor¬ 
rupt, that Jesus came. 

“And what was His reception? ‘He 
came unto His own, and His own received 
Him not,* is the record! Much as they 
needed Him, His teaching was so pure, 
His light so brilliant, that the worldly, 
hypocritical pretenders to virtue could not 
stand Him, and instead of loving, they 
hated Him; instead of receiving, they re¬ 
jected Him, and to rid themselves of Him, 
they had Him killed. 


15 




WHO W A S JESUS? 


“Nor was His reception by the Romans 
any warmer. So obnoxious to the proud 
and haughty were His simple teachings of 
the way of life, that for hundreds of years, 
the hunting down of His followers was a 
national pastime. 

“But, notwithstanding all this, Chris¬ 
tianity survived its enemies, and you are 
today forced to admit that it is the one 
great force for uplift in the world.” 

“Now, Judge, kindly explain how this 
wonder was accomplished? What is the 
power back of it? How does this dead 
Jew,* not only dead nineteen hundred 
years, but scorned and rejected by the 
‘wise’ of His time, the ‘good’ of His time, 
the ‘great* of His time, as a common 
fanatic at best and a deceiver at worst; I 
say, how does it come about that this 
man’s influence is so marvelous, so virile, 
even till this day? You must see that it 
is up to you to explain this.” 

And for two hours the judge tried to do 


16 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


that thing. We examined every possible 
theory that he presented, to see if it was 
adequate to the task he had set for it. It 
would needlessly take up our time tonight 
to follow the windings of our path that 
day as he offered what at first seemed suf¬ 
ficient explanations, only to find them too 
feeble for the job. 

“The enthusiasm of Jesus”; “the zeal 
of fanatical disciples”; “the wonderful 
beauty of His life”; “the inherent belief 
in the supernatural in man”; “the bind¬ 
ing cohesive force of persecution”; “the 
power of a mighty psychic over the sub¬ 
jective mind in man”; “the simple purity 
of His teachings”; even “the sad tragedy 
of His untimely death,” all were examined 
and found wanting, and the judge was 
forced to admit that either or all of these 
influences, powerful as they are, were un¬ 
able to stand up under the test placed 
upon them. When he frankly admitted 
his inability to offer a “cause” for the 


17 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


acknowledged “effects,” I said to him: 

“Now, Judge, the case is even worse 
than it has yet appeared against your 
theory, for here is another fact that must 
be admitted, namely: If Jesus was not the 
Son of God as He claimed, then He was a 
fraud. He was either a deliberate fraud, 
or an ignorant fraud. He was either 
knowingly deceiving those He led to be¬ 
lieve Him Divine, or He was a hopeless 
fanatic who actually thought Himself 
Divine. Now, which was He? 

“If the records we have of Him are 
true, He talked of Himself as having 
powers that God only can have; He made 
promises that God only can fulfill; He 
allowed Himself to be worshipped and 
prayed to, as God only should be; hence, 
we are compelled to accept one of three 
theories: 

“First, He was the conscious Son of 
God. 

“Second, He was a willful deceiver. 


18 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


“Third, He was a hopeless fanatic, 
utterly insane! 

“Now, which horn will you take? Was 
He a fanatic or a fraud?” 

“Neither one,” said the judge, “and 1 
am sorry to have to say what 1 am going 
to say, because 1 do not want to hurt your 
feelings nor disturb your faith. 

“You are simply in the common rut of 
error that the church is in, in regard to this 
matter. You are acting on the assump¬ 
tion that you have the actual record of 
what Jesus said and did, when the fact is, 
you have no such thing. 

“The records you believe to be true are 
inventions. Matthew, Mark, Luke and 
John were not witnesses to the words and 
deeds of Jesus at all. 

“These books were written many years 
after His death, and are simply a compila¬ 
tion of stories and fables about what Jesus 
was said to have said and done, and they 


19 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


have long ago been shown to be unworthy 
of credence. 

“No really intelligent man today, except 
those who, because of their worshipful at¬ 
titude toward these books, are unable to 
see the truth; 1 say no unbiased men to¬ 
day believe these books are records of the 
sayings and doings of Jesus. 

“Jesus was a great and good man, but 
too much is attributed to him by his blind 
followers. I have no idea he ever said a 
foolish thing about himself or made a 
foolish claim for Himself. His character 
is too fine to admit of any such opinion of 
Him. So you see, my son, I do not have 
to accept either of your ‘horns.’ He was 
neither a fraud nor a fanatic, and He cer¬ 
tainly never claimed to be a God,” said the 
judge. 

“So you do not think ‘unbiased, intel¬ 
ligent men’ hold the church opinion? Did 
you ever hear of Simon Greenleaf ?’’ 


20 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


“You mean Greenleaf, the teacher of 
law?” he asked. 

‘‘Yes, Simon Greenleaf, the man who 
wrote books on evidence, who taught law¬ 
yers.” 

‘‘Certainly, 1 have his books and have 
known him for many years. Why?” 

‘‘Have you ever read his book called 
‘The Testimony of the Evangelists’ ”? 1 
asked. 

‘‘No, I did not know he had ever writ¬ 
ten any such book! When was it? Tell 
me about it,” he said. And I told him 
about Simon Greenleaf’s book. 

It may not be amiss here for me to re¬ 
peat a part of what I said to him. But 
first allow me to say, that Simon Green¬ 
leaf is commonly accepted as a great 
teacher of legal principles. His work, ‘‘A 
Treatise on the Law of Evidence,” is 
standard, and is recognized in all courts. 
He was a professor of law at Harvard 
University. In his great work, ‘‘The Tes- 


21 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


timony of the Evangelists,” he says he is 
attempting to ‘‘examine these books by 
the rules of evidence admitted in our 
courts of justice,” and his conclusions are 
that ‘‘their testimony about Jesus must be 
accepted as true.” His book is addressed 
to the ‘‘Members of the Legal Profession,” 
and in that he says: 

‘‘Things related by the Evangelists are 
certainly of the most momentous charac¬ 
ter, affecting the principles of our conduct 
here, and our happiness hereafter. The 
religion of Jesus Christ aims at nothing 
less than the utter overthrow of other sys¬ 
tems of religion in the world, denouncing 
them as inadequate to the wants of man, 
false in their foundations and dangerous 
in their tendencies. If these claims are not 
true, they are little less than the preten¬ 
sions of a bold imposture, which, not satis¬ 
fied with having already enslaved millions 
of the human race, seeks to continue its 
encroachments on hitman liberty until all 


22 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


nations shall be subjugated under its iron 
rule. But if they are well founded and 
just, then they can be no less than the 
high requirements of heaven, addressed by 
the voice of God to the reason and under¬ 
standing of man, concerning things deeply 
affecting his relations to his Sovereign, es¬ 
sential to the formation of his character, 
and of course, to his destiny both here and 
hereafter.” 

It was in this solemn spirit, and with 
these words and this consciousness of the 
results of his inquiry, that this great 
teacher approached the examination of 
these ancient documents. 

In paragraph 8, he says, “And that the 
text of the four Evangelists has been 
handed down to us in the state in which 
it was originally written, that is, without 
having been materially corrupted or falsi¬ 
fied, are facts which we are entitled to 
assume as true until the contrary is shown. 
The genuineness of these writings really 


23 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


admits of as little doubt, and is as suscep¬ 
tible of as ready proof, as that of any 
ancient writings whatever. The rule of 
municipal law on the subject applies with 
equal force to all ancient writings, whether 
documentary or otherwise/* Here he 
gives the rule of law. 

“Every document, apparently ancient, 
coming from the proper repository and 
bearing on its face no evident marks of 
forgery, the law presumes to be genuine, 
and devolves on the opposing party of 
proving it to be otherwise.’’ 

Having laid down these rules of evi¬ 
dence, Greenleaf proceeds most carefully 
to examine the testimony of Matthew, 
Mark, Luke, and John, subjecting them to 
the most exacting compliance with the 
rules of evidence in common law, among 
others being “The credit due the testi¬ 
mony of witnesses depends upon: First, 
their honesty; second, their ability; third, 
their number and consistency of their tes- 


24 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


timony; fourth, the conformity of their 
testimony with experience; and fifth, the 
coincidence of their testimony with col¬ 
lateral evidence.” Thus, this man exam¬ 
ined these witnesses and no man can read 
this great work without being struck with 
the breadth of his research, the depth of 
his learning, the strength of his mind, his 
absolute sincerity in his search after the 
truth. And here are his sober conclu¬ 
sions : 

“Either the men of Gallilee were men 
of superlative wisdom, extensive knowl¬ 
edge and experience, and of deeper skill 
in the arts of deception than any and all 
men before or after them; or, they have 
truly stated the astonishing things which 
they saw and heard.” 

He then gives in full, as a lawyer would, 
the testimony of these four witnesses, and 
he gives it as we have it. In addition to 
this, he gives much space to an examina- 


25 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


tion of the various stories of contradictory 
manuscripts, etc. 

“Now, Judge, you must face a square 
question. What authority have you for 
your assertion that ‘Matthew, Mark, Luke 
and John are not credible witnesses of 
what Jesus said and did?’ Who, as you 
asserted, ‘investigated these books and 
proved them inventions, gotten up long 
after Jesus had died, and who attributed 
to Him things He never said nor taught 
about Himself’? I have the right to de¬ 
mand your authority for such bold state¬ 
ments. Kindly give them to me!’’ 

And Judge Blank was ‘ up a tree.’ Be¬ 
ing an honest man, he found himself face 
to face with a demand that he had no dis¬ 
position to dodge, and with a question that 
left him without an answer. He searched 
his memory for his ‘authority.’ He started 
to mention several names of men whose 
books he had read, and who asserted these 
same things, but each time he felt com- 


26 



WHO W A S JESUS? 


pelled to acknowledge that they were far 
from being ‘authority/ They were men, 
who, just like himself, had believed what 
they had been told about these things and 
who, no more than he, had ever ‘exam¬ 
ined and disproved’ these books at all. 

After some moments of confusion, he 
faced the truth squarely and said, “I sim¬ 
ply haven’t any! All my life I have been 
told these things about these books. The 
men whom I have accepted as my teachers 
asserted and believed these things about 
them, hundreds of books repeat these bold 
statements concerning them, but as for 
any of them being worthy to be called an 
‘authority’ alongside of Simon Greenleaf, 

1 am compelled to acknowledge they are 
not.” 

This honest man had not intended to 
do violence to the truth, but he had sim¬ 
ply failed to keep track of the rules of 
evidence when he heard derogatory things 
said about these old books. I now began 


27 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


to see why he was spoken of as “an hon¬ 
est man.” He looked straight at me and 
said, “I am ready to hear your case, Mr. 
Attorney, and I will do my best to give 
due consideration to what you have to 
offer.** 

“Then let us look at this evidence as 
presented by the Evangelists. Now, what 
do these men say about Jesus? What do 
they say that He said and taught about 
Himself? We are forced to take Him at 
His own estimate, or, believe Him a fraud, 
trying to deceive. He cannot be consid¬ 
ered a ‘good, wise man,’ and, at the same 
time, be an ‘ignorant fraud,* trying to 
induce people to believe untruths about 
Him. This is not possible. So we are 
forced to the conclusion that He was either 
one of three things: First, what He said 
He was, the Son of God. Second, totally 
deceived about Himself, and hence a dan¬ 
gerous fanatic; or, Third, a deliberate liar. 


28 



WHO W A S JESUS? 


He was either one or the other, for he 
allows us no other opinion. 

“Now, what do the witnesses say He 
said about Himself? Listen to Him; He 
said that He ‘came down from heaven* 
(John 3:13); that He ‘was before Abra- 
ham’ (John 8:58); that He had ‘glory 
with the Father before the world was* 
(John 17:5); that He had ‘power on earth 
to forgive sins* (Mark 2:15-10, Luke 
7:48); that He could and would ‘give 
eternal life that men should not perish’ 
(John 10:28); that ‘no man could come 
unto God but by Him’ (John 14:6) ; that 
God had ‘committed all judgment unto 
Him’ (John 5:22, 23) ; that He ‘could and 
would raise the dead* (John 6:39, 44); 
that He Himself would ‘rise from the 
dead’ (John 2:18, 22), and that he ‘would 
come again to rule the earth’ (Mark 

14:61, 62). 

“These and many other things they tes¬ 
tify that He said about Himself. Could 


29 



WHO WAS JESUS? 



a 'mere man’ have made any such claims 
and not be a hopeless fanatic, or an utter 
liar? Would any mere man making such 
claims be considered a safe leader, or a 
wise teacher? 

“ ‘But,* you say, ‘these are things taught 
about Him by ignorant followers, and He 
was not responsible for them.’ But where 
do you get any information at ail about 
Him? Is it not from these same ‘ignorant 
followers’? They are the ones who tell 
us about the wonderful life of this won¬ 
derful man; and it is strange indeed if they 
are such hopeless liars in some places, and 
writers of such wonderful revelations in 
others; that they should present to the old 
world this white light, this pure ray, and 
at the same time so surround it with such 
black and hurtful untruths! 

“Now let us see whether they them¬ 
selves believe their own stories. What did 
they themselves believe and teach others 
to believe about Him? You say ‘He was 


30 




WHO WAS JESUS? 


a mere man.’ They say they saw Him 
raise the dead (John I 1 :34) ; heal lepers 
(Matt. 8:3); still stormy waves (Matt. 
8:26); cast out devils (Mark 3); die on 
the cross (Matt. 27:50); rise from the 
dead (Matt. 28), and ascend into heaven 
(Luke 25:51). Now, those things am 
either true or they are false. It is cer¬ 
tainly true that those who lived near the 
time of Christ had a much better chance 
to know what was really thought and 
believed of Him, what He taught, said, and 
did, and what His disciples taught about 
Him, than we of this far away day. 

“Now look what the early church 
thought about Him. They thought Him 
sent of God (Rom. 6, 7, 8; John 1, 14; 
Heb. 2:9-16); that He could atone for 
sin (1 Cor. 15:3); that He was worthy 
of worship (Phil. 2:4-1 1 ) ; that He arose 
from the grave (Acts 17:3); that He was 
man’s hope of life (Rom. 6:23; 1st John 
5:1 1-12); and that He was coming again, 


31 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


etc. (1st Thess. 4:16-18). Now, this is 
what the early church believed about this 
Jesus, whom you think a mere man. 
You admit that He founded that church, 
but you think it believed things about Him 
that were not true. You do not deny 
either the fact of the early church nor His 
being its founder. 

“Now, you must realize that it is up to 
you to explain this Christianity. If He 
w T ere a mere man, it is the enigma of all 
time. Wherein lies its wonderful power, 
its virility, its transforming energy? It 
has revolutionized the world, as you will 
admit. Eighteen hundred years ago the 
world was pagan. Today the best of it is 
Christian. Those nations that have em¬ 
braced this religion, believing this Jew r to 
be the Son of God, have been seen to draw 
away from those that did not, to become 
enlightened, civilized, cleaner, more hu¬ 
mane, superstitions dissolved and their 
minds liberated. 


32 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


“While every nation that refused Him, 
or accepting, forsook Him, has either re¬ 
mained in darkness, or disappeared from 
the earth. How do you account for these 
things? These people who have come up 
have done so believing that a ‘mere man’ 
was a God! That He had the power to 
forgive their sins, and help them in their 
inner being, that He would give them eter¬ 
nal life! They were, of course, grossly 
superstitious, if you are right. Yet their 
superstitions have never failed to be a 
benefit to them, to prove a blessing to 
them. Somehow, believing lies has had 
the strange power to make them want to 
quit lying! Believing fables has some way 
liberated them from superstitions! This 
is an absolute reversal of all other human 
observations and experiences! It is a 
‘riddle* inserted into the history of man 
and it is up to you who believe it to 
explain it. 


33 




WHO WAS JESUS? 


“Now, Judge, here are a few common 
laws, or rules, that may help us in this 
matter. For instance, it has been com¬ 
monly supposed that ‘there must be an 
adequate cause for every effect,* that ‘like 
begets like,* and that ‘no stream can rise 
higher than its source.’ Do you really 
believe that this Christianity that has 
changed the map of the world, that has 
so vitally affected the lives of men as you 
know it has, can be accounted for on the 
hypothesis that men are deceived into be¬ 
lieving a dead Jew, one that has now been 
dead for over eighteen hundred years, was 
in reality alive, and that a ‘mere man* was 
in reality a ‘God’? Can you believe the 
world would have been so affected by the 
mere belief in such a tissue of lies and 
untruths? 

“Now we must not lose sight of the fact 
that the men who claim to be Christians, 
claim also that they have received an actual 
change in their natures, an actual experi- 


34 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


ence, a change in their affections, desires, 
hopes and fears! Is it fair or safe to as¬ 
sume that these men, whose word is taken 
every day in other matters of personal ex¬ 
perience, have suddenly become unworthy 
of belief, now that they are testifying to a 
matter that you happen to know nothing 
about } 

“I do not believe, Judge, that any man 
can account for human history, the mar¬ 
velous changes that have come to men 
whose after lives have so vitally affected 
this world, on any other hypothesis than 
that men can be ‘converted’ as Christians 
claim. I do not mean a mere change of 
opinion about self and God, but an ac¬ 
tual ‘regeneration,* ‘transformation,’ ‘new 
birth,’ as the Bible says, and as men testify 
to having experienced. It would take too 
much time, even if it were needful, to 
name such men, for their name is legion, 
and every age since the time of Christ has 


35 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


heard their testimony and witnessed their 
lives. 

“Without exception, these Christian 
men assert that these ‘effects were caused, 
not by a mere opinion concerning Jesus 
(many of them all their lives did not even 
doubt His divinity), but through the 
mighty power of God when they accepted 
this Jesus as the Lord of their lives, the 
Son of God. 

“You cannot dodge or evade these 
‘effects,’ for they are facts and must be 
accounted for; and it is up to you to ac¬ 
count for them on your hypothesis that 
Jesus was a ‘mere man.’ Every effect 
must have an adequate cause. If a stick 
should be thrust through that hole (a hole 
in the floor) and you should stand on it 
and be lifted up and down by it and I 
should ask: ‘What is that under there lift¬ 
ing you so easily?’ You would not think 
to deceive me by replying, ‘Oh, that*3 
merely a little grandson playing by push- 


36 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


ing the stick through the hole.’ You know 
I would not believe any child had the 
power to juggle a man of your size up 
and down in that manner. And yet some¬ 
thing has caused you to believe that for 
over eighteen hundred years a dead Jew 
has juggled a world up and down on the 
end of a lie! 

“Take the second rule mentioned, ‘Like 
begets like.’ 1 his is supposed to operate 
in all realms. I ask you if, in any other 
department of life or any other realms, 
man has ever seen what you think you see 
here? Nothing short of absolute reversal 
of this law! 

“You admit that genuine Christians are 
sincere, upright, pure in life, honest, etc., 
etc. You admit that many who were a 
while ago just the reverse of this show 
these traits now, and you hear them at¬ 
tribute this change to Christ and their faith 
in His Divinity. And yet, you seem to be¬ 
lieve that here ‘truth’ was begotten by 


37 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


‘falsehood’; that ‘sincerity’ was begotten 
by ‘deception’; ‘honesty* was begotten by 
‘cheating’; ‘knowledge’ was begotten by 
superstition’; ‘beautiful characters and 
holy lives’ were begotten by ‘false teach¬ 
ings’ ! 

“Then take the third rule of law, ‘No 
stream can rise higher than its source. 
You admit that eighteen hundred years 
ago, there came into this world a ‘stream’ 
of purity of teaching, and beauty of living, 
that has had an uplifting effect on men. 
It has done more than that. It has lifted 
men to God! Whence came that stream? 
What was its true ‘source*?’’ 

And thus we talked for a long time, and 
the judge was free to admit that he could 
not explain many things, or answer many 
questions presented. 

“But,” he said, “while I cannot explain 
these things at all, it is impossible for me 
to believe the other hypothesis; I simply 
could not believe that Jesus was ‘divinely 


38 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


begotten* without the intervention of a 
male! This is to me unreasonable, un¬ 
natural, unscientific. It contradicts all nat¬ 
ural law. Why do you so insist on this 
belief in the supernatural? Why can a 
man not be a Christian, as many believe, 
and leave that out?’* 

“Because,** I replied, “the only grounds 
that I know of for any man’s becoming a 
Christian at all, are those set forth in the 
Bible, and the Bible most clearly says that 
belief in the supernatural Christ, and in 
the work He did, are the grounds for 
man’s redemption. The death and resur¬ 
rection of Jesus are the Bible grounds for 
our hope; not His teachings, ethics, beau¬ 
tiful life or anything of the sort. Please 
do not overlook this truth. We have come 
today to a time when an emasculated, 
powerless ‘gospel’ is offered to man. 
When the changes are rung on the ‘beau¬ 
tiful life* of Jesus, etc., etc., and we are 
told that we should ‘imitate Him,* etc. 


39 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


“To be sure, we should follow Him, 
imitate Him, study His beautiful life, etc., 
but if this is all we have, we are without 
hope. If He were a mere man, He had no 
power to die for my sins, to rise again, or 
to raise me again. 1 need a Savior more 
powerful than any ‘mere man* could ever 
be. I have a past that needs blotting out, 
and the Bible teaches that ‘the blood of 
Jesus’ was shed to do that for me. I have 
a weak mind, and an imperfect judgment, 
I need a teacher and guide, and the Bible 
offers Jesus as my Lord for that purpose. 
I need peace with God, and an advocate 
with God to plead my case at the Court 
on high. Christ is my advocate, ever 
living to intercede for me. 1 need power 
superior to any I naturally ever had, if I 
would win in the fight against Satan; and 
Christ sends down the Holy Ghost to em¬ 
power for victory in the battles of life! 
No, Judge, a ‘mere man’ could not save 
me or enable me to save myself. And in 


40 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


this I am not alone, for listen to Saint 
Paul: ‘If Christ be not risen, then is our 
preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. 
Yea, and we are found false witnesses of 
God, because we have testified of God that 
He raised Christ up, and if Christ be not 
raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in 
your sins. Then are they also which are 
fallen asleep in Christ, perished. If in this 
life only we have hope in Christ, we are 
of all men the most miserable/ (1 st Cor. 


15:15-19.) 


“And this agrees with the whole of the 
New Testament and this is what we must 
insist on. We must either accept Jesus 
thus as the Son of God, or reject Him as 
an impostor. There can be no middle 
ground if we accept the testimony of the 
witness to the truth given the early 
church. Thus you see the early church 
was founded on the faith that the man of 
Galilee was the Son of God, that He died 
for man’s sins; rose again, etc.; that He 


41 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


came to give men life, not mere instruc¬ 
tion; life, not mere ideas about life; life, 
not example alone. 

“These things are either true or they are 
false, and if one thinks himself a ‘Chris¬ 
tian’ merely because he admires Jesus, 
sees beauty in His character, tries to imi¬ 
tate Him, etc., he is certainly mistaken, if 
these men who lived and taught in the 
time of Christ Himself are to be believed 
and followed. 

“Now, Judge, you have said the ‘divine 
conception was unnatural, unscientific, 
violated all natural law,* etc. Allow me 
to ask you, do you think you know all 
natural law?*’ 

“I do not claim to do so; why do you 
ask that?’’ he said. 

“But are you not as good as doing so 
when you assert that ‘divine conception 
contradicts all natural law’ ? If you do not 
know all natural law, how can you be so 
certain? You also say it is ‘unscientific.* 


42 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


What science do you have in mind, the 
science of what age and time? There has 
been that which was called a science in 
every age perhaps, but very little of the 
‘scientific knowledge* of the ages back of 
us is considered worthy of attention today. 
You are certainly not a blind worshipper 
at the feet of ‘science,* I trust. 

“Do not misunderstand me. I am not 
casting slurs at the learning of men. I am 
amazed more and more every day at the 
vast knowledge really possessed by man. 
But have we not many times had to listen 
to the ‘opinions’ of those supposedly wise, 
on subjects that they had no better chance 
to know about than we ourselves ? 

“Many of the deductions of scientists 
have been proven to be not even good 
guessing, much less accurate information. 

“Suppose a few years ago some man 
had said that ‘the time will come when we 
can live for hours under the sea; fly for 
hours in the air; talk to others thousands 


43 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


of miles distant; make sounds of instru¬ 
ments stay for years on a metal or rubber 
disk, and be given forth at will! ponderous 
bodies be moved and lifted by an invisible 
power, etc. Suppose someone had said 
that these things had been ‘foretold in a 
book accredited by a church,* what would 
the wise men have said? The mere fact 
that an axe head was said on one occasion 
to swim; two men to walk on the water, 
and another to live three days in a whale’s 
belly, in Bible times, has been enough to 
cause many ‘scientists’ to feel sure they 
would belittle themselves to believe such 
a book! 

“1 have a friend in Missouri who spent 
some years in the service of Professor 
Roentgen, the German who discovered 
the X-Ray or Roentgen ray. My friend 
says that this German doctor knew some¬ 
thing about that strange light for some 
years before he dared say anything about 
it publicly. In those days, science said 


44 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


that light cannot penetrate opaque sub¬ 
stances. Roentgen was one day in a 
dark room, developing some photographic 
plates, when there came a sudden flash of 
that strange light into the room. He knew 
it must be electric and he knew the only 
electrical impulses being generated in his 
place were from a static machine some dis¬ 
tance away with which an assistant was 
operating. He looked into it and found 
his man doing something with a static ma¬ 
chine and an old fashioned Crookes tube. 
They went to work at it with this new 
thought in mind, and by changing the 
tube, etc., somewhat, he at last got it per¬ 
fected. There was a gathering of scien¬ 
tists, and he read his paper telling of his 
discovery, and you know the sensation it 
awakened. To be sure, many of the wise 
men smiled and doubted, but when they 
placed the hoods over their eyes, put their 
hands out in front and that machine was 
started, they saw their bones wiggle for 


45 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


the first time, and knew that there were a 
few things that even they had not sus¬ 
pected. (I suspect if it was thought that 
I had a moral X-ray machine here in Okla¬ 
homa City, a lot of you fellows wouldn’t 
be here tonight, and the trains toward 
Texas would have done a good business 
these past weeks.) 

“So you see, Judge, we are almost daily 
learning new facts about the world in 
which we live, its laws, etc. We have 
about come to the place where we are not 
willing to dispute anything, or deny any 
possibilities, so often have we found our¬ 
selves denying facts. Indeed, we daily 
witness things that seem really as ‘marvel¬ 
ous as the miracles that astounded the 
people in Jesus’ time. To limit the opera¬ 
tion of natural law to our own experiences 
and observations is now seen to be a fool¬ 
ish performance, though we often see it 
when it comes to religious discussion. ‘It 
cannot be true, men assert, merely be- 


46 



WHO W A S JESUS? 


cause they happen to know nothing about 
it.” 

But you do not mean to claim that this 
can have any bearing on the matter we 
are discussing, the so-called ‘‘divine con¬ 
ception’?” he asked. 

‘‘1 most assuredly do,” I replied. ‘‘1 
assert that the Bible teaches, and it is my 
belief, that not only was the ‘conception* 
of Jesus Divine, but that ALL conception 
was also Divine!” 

‘‘I suppose, Judge, that you are an evo¬ 
lutionist?” He said he was. 

‘‘All right, I have no disposition to 
quarrel with you on that, as it makes no 
difference here. 1 suppose you would 
start the world building along back in the 
‘star dust’ period?” He said that was 
about as far back as his imagination could 
go, so I proceeded to outline roughly the 
changes that might have taken place, and 
to which he agreed, thus: 

‘‘Away back, an unthinkable number of 


47 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


ages ago, what we now know as mat¬ 
ter* was in a very different form. It was 
a nebulous ‘sun dust’ or ‘star dust,’ float¬ 
ing in space. Then at some given time— 
we cannot even surmise when—there 
came into this dust certain ‘laws’ that were 
not there before. The first was likely the 
law of motion. It began to move, to re¬ 
volve. The second, we ll say, was the 
law of gravity. 

“And right here we must pass over an¬ 
other ‘mystery’ and not even ask, ‘What 
is gravity?’ What gives matter the strange 
power to attract other matter, to hold it 
so firmly? With no contact, no connect¬ 
ing media, other than this strange ‘law,* 
matter reaches across space and grips 
other matter! We had better pass that. 

“Another of these ‘laws* was that we 
call ‘affinity.’ 

“This nebulous dust began to move, to 
revolve round and round, drawn ever 
closer by the ‘law* of gravity, until, by 


48 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


virtue of the other ‘laws' found within it, 
it began to change form and appearance. 
It changed from dust to gas, from gas to 
liquid, from liquid to solid, whirling, cool¬ 
ing, until at last its outer surface was cool 
enough for life to exist upon it. Of 
course, you see that we are making no 
effort to give anything but the vaguest 
outline, and that neither particularly accu¬ 
rate nor in technical language. We are 
speaking from the simple point of view of 
an ordinary man, had he witnessed these 
mighty processes, and as they would have 
appeared to his eye, that’s all.” 

‘‘That’s all right,” said the judge, ‘‘I 
have no quarrel with your outline so far, 
but where does this bring us?” 

‘‘It brings us out squarely where the 
Bible begins,” I replied. 

‘‘That book says, ‘In the beginning God 
created the heavens and the earth, and the 
earth was without form,’ etc. There is no 
hint how long ago that creation took place, 


49 




WHO WAS JESUS? 


nor the processes God instituted to bring 
the needed changes to pass. It is just as 
rational to suppose that processes were 
carried out in bringing the earth to its 
present form, as it is to believe that living 
organisms develop from primary germ to 
ultimate form. Had a man been privi¬ 
leged to witness these mighty changes, 
how else could he have told of them than 
in the language of the senses, or as they 
appeared to his eye? 

“If you complain that the language of 
the Bible is not ‘scientific,* you forget that 
the ‘scientific’ terminology of the day is of 
but recent origin, and is understood by 
very few of the earth’s inhabitants, while 
the great truths of the Word were given 
for all men everywhere. The marvel is, 
that they are so told as to convey clear 
impressions to the mind of both the ignor¬ 
ant and the learned. But let us get back 
to where we left off. . 

“The earth at some time came into a 


50 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


state where life was possible on it, and 

THAT LIFE CAME. 

“Now the question is, where did these 
life germs come from? 

“How did the marvelous germs of life, 
the antecedents of the myriad forms of life 
that people this earth, originate? 

“I care little whether you believe all life 
sprang from one parent cell, or whether 
you believe, as I do, that each species was, 
as now, always separate. Certainly the 
same ‘cause’ which produced one germ 
could produce others. Nature does not 
now produce but a single specimen of any 
living thing—so why should we assume it 
ever did? If you believe in the ‘single cell’ 
idea, you are forced to believe more about 
that cell than I can possibly believe. You 
are forced by the logic of the case to be¬ 
lieve that every characteristic, every ten¬ 
dency, every power, every function pos¬ 
sessed or manifested by every living thing 


51 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


today were wrapped up in that one life 
germ! 

“It is beyond me to believe that any 
such potentialities were in a single germ, 
but that does not matter. Our question 
is, ‘Whence life on this earth?’ 

“Now, there are only three possible 
hypotheses: 

“First: These life germs were coexist¬ 
ent with matter and were therefore always 
:n that ‘dust,’ ‘gas,* liquid flaming mass, 
etc. Do you believe that? You certainly 
do not, as you could not if you would. 

“Second: Do you believe these life 
germs were ‘spontaneously generated,’ 
sprang from the dust, or the sea, were 
merely the result of certain chemical com¬ 
binations or conditions?’’ 

The judge hastened to disclaim any 
such belief, for he did not belong to the 
class of ignorant people who swallow the 
trash handed out by yellow journals that 
continually report some ‘great scientist’ 


52 



WHO W A S JESUS? 


as being on the eve of discovering the 
secret of life, and how to create it, etc. 
Judge Blank had kept up with the experi¬ 
ments of such men as Pasteur, who ex¬ 
hausted every effort t b produce life from 
dead matter, and he knew that no axiom 
in the scientific world was more firmly 
established than this, “Life comes only 
from life.” The law of “Biogenesis” is as 
well established as the law of gravity. 

“Third: This brings us squarely out on 
the Bible explanation, that of DIVINE 
CONCEPTION! 

“If life germs were not eternal, and 
always in the parent matter; if they were 
not spontaneously generated; then there 
is but one thing left for us to believe, and 
that is CREATION! They were created 
by a Creator capable of giving them their 
powers, and put here! 

“The Bible says that God is just as truly 
the Author of all life as He is of Christ’s 
life. And while this is, to be sure, far 


53 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


beyond our ‘understanding,* are we not 
also faced on every turn with myriad facts 
that are as wholly beyond our ‘under¬ 
standing’? We simply know nothing 
about the mystery of life, and we may 
never know, but we know the facts of its 
reality and, as sane people, we go on our 
way in its enjoyment. 

“In the fullness of time, God, the Crea¬ 
tor of matter, the Author of its ‘laws,* the 
One who set the limits to its possibilities, 
that God created life. And just as matter 
differs in its properties, so do life germs 
differ in their powers. Just as boundaries 
were set for matter and it is confined by 
‘law,’ so did God set boundaries for each 
species of life and so limit its functions. 
It was held by the immutable law of its 
God. It could correspond with its environ¬ 
ment to the limit of its powers; it could 
reproduce ‘after its kind,’ but beyond the 
will of its Creator it could not pass. Its 
functions were strictly limited. This is the 


54 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


‘law* we see all about us today. God’s 
word says it was always the law! What 
right have we to surmise that at some 
remote period, some other ‘law’ was in 
operation on this earth? We are under 
no such compulsion, and many who so 
eagerly seize on such theories, do so, in 
my opinion, because they think they see 
therein a way to escape the authority of 
God’s word! 

“So here we are, shut up to the Bible 
explanation for life on earth at all. 

“Now, Judge, if God could and did 
originate life in such varied forms on 
earth, why can we not believe that He was 
the direct author of the life of Christ? 
Kindly note this fact. The nature of a 
life germ is not manifest by its appear¬ 
ance. Learned men tell us that one life 
germ cannot be distinguished from an¬ 
other by its appearance. The true nature 
of a life germ is revealed alone by its facul¬ 
ties, its power, its potentialities. 


55 



WHO WAS JES U S ? 


“Do I need to illustrate this? Suppose 
this: Here we have a number of life germs 
about which there is a dispute. One as¬ 
serts they belong to this, another to some 
other specie. Now what is the sure test? 
Give them a chance to germinate! Let 
them grow, expand, reveal themselves, 
and they will surely speak for themselves 
in a language not to be mistaken. They 
can perform no function not possessed by 
their faculties; they can exhibit no power 
not possessed by their nature. 

“Now note this, also. No life can mani¬ 
fest itself except it has an environment 
in which to live, with which to correspond, 
and that is adjusted to its peculiar nature. 

“In other words, there had to be a field 
for life to perform in, and a need for its 
existence, or it could not have existed. 
Did we but have the power of mind we 
would, no doubt, be able to see the ‘use,’ 
the reason for every form of life. We are 
daily learning more and more of the truth 


56 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


of this. Life is here because there was a 
field for its activities and work for it to do! 

“Let us apply this principle to the life 
of Jesus! Was there no need, no field for 
Him and His work? A while ago we were 
trying in vain to ‘explain’ the marvel of 
His life, the power that he exhibited. That 
the world needed Him, there was no ques¬ 
tion. That His work was not being done 
by any human being, you also honestly 
admit No ‘mere man’ could do what He 
did and what He does. 

“How shall we place this life of Jesus? 
By what rule shall we measure Him? If 
the nature of all other life germs are re¬ 
vealed by their abilities, why not honestly 
admit that the explanation of the life and 
work of Jesus is found in His NATURE, 
His INHERENT ABILITIES, just as it is 
in all other life forms ? 

“Suppose, if merely for the sake of 
looking at it, that you admit that Jesus 
was Divine. Does that not turn a new 


57 




WHO WAS JESUS? 


and clarifying light on the enigma of His 
life, teachings and the strange influence 
He exerted? If He were Divine, then you 
can understand His bold assertions, His 
broad promises, His strange power. You 
can see why He was undismayed when 
seeming defeat met His efforts, when even 
death itself drew near. You can under¬ 
stand His strange calmness, His matchless 
wisdom, His breadth of charity, His won¬ 
drous character. If He were Divine, then 
disease could not resist His rebukes, blind¬ 
ness could not darken His light, nor death 
hold against His commands. If He created 
the worlds, the stormy winds knew the 
voice of their Master, and the lashing 
waves the presence of their Lord. The 
strange faith He inspired is no longer un¬ 
answered. The virility of His faith is as 
plain as noonday sunshine, when we come 
to understand that its author was the Son 
of God, the source of all power in heaven 
and earth. 


58 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


“Admit, if you please, that this is 
merely a ‘working hypothesis,* but is it 
not true that all truly scientific men do 
their real work in this way? They secure 
the most rational hypothesis and then give 
it a chance to see whether it works! 

“1 must insist, Judge, that true Chris¬ 
tianity is strictly scientific and no honest 
seeker after the truth has any right to 
treat it differently from what he would 
treat any other important matter pre¬ 
sented for his consideration or knowledge. 
While Jesus is indeed offered to your 
‘faith,* you are not asked to treat Him dif¬ 
ferently, nor to use your mind differently 
from the way you use it in any sober and 
rational research. 

“Let us look at this thing we call 
‘knowledge,’ see how it is acquired, and if 
we can determine what it really is. 

“We notice that it is not all of the same 
nature, nor is it acquired in the same man¬ 
ner. Some of it is merely ‘opinion,’ set- 


59 




WHO WAS JESUS? 


tied conviction as to this or that, the result 
of study, reading, thought, speculation. 
Much of what we call our ‘knowledge’ is 
of this sort. It is not the result of experi¬ 
ment nor experience. 

“Another class comes to us through the 
testimony of others. We ‘know’ many 
things, when we merely are crediting the 
word of others. This is the court house 
sort. 

“Then there is that knowledge that is 
the result of our own experiences. We 
‘know’ many things that we could not give 
an explanation of, nor show proof for, to 
others. It is not of that sort; it lives too 
deeply in our inner being. It may have 
come to us by revelation, by a sudden con¬ 
sciousness, or through experience, but 
however it comes, we know, and this 
knowledge is ofttimes the very sweetest 
that ever comes to us. 

“Now, judge, just as there are three 
ways of acquiring, or three sorts of 


60 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


knowledge/ so does truth itself seem to 
fall into three realms. 

“The first is Nature. The truth con¬ 
nected with matter, its forms, etc., etc. 
This is what science deals with. 

“The second is what I would call Art 
and Invention, or those things that man 
has added to the world s possessions. Man 
found a ‘naked’ world and he has ‘clothed 
it with his devices. He has devised, 
arranged, invented, constructed. Every¬ 
thing from the alphabet to the airplane is 
within this sphere. We are put to it to 
even try to keep up with the many devices, 
and understand the ‘truth’ as to man’s 
myriad devices, and most of us study this 
more than anything else. 

“Then there is that third class of ‘truth’ 
that lies in the realm of the Spirit. Those 
truths that appertain to the soul, its na¬ 
ture, needs, happiness, etc. 

“That man is a Spirit you do not deny. 
If he is, that ‘Spirit’ must have its ‘laws/ 


61 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


you cannot deny. Man speaks glibly of 
the ‘laws of the mind,’ and results prove 
that he has learned some truth about them. 
Can we not know something of the soul s 
law, also. Jesus says we can. 

“You know that the laws of the physi¬ 
cal world do not have any necessary con¬ 
nection with the mind of man. I mean 
this: The ignorant savage knows nothing 
of the natural laws of his body, but they 
go on operating just the same. Their 
operation is not hindered by his ignorance. 
God’s word says this is exactly the truth 
as to the soul and its laws. 

“It was because of this, and because He 
was so concerned that man might know 
the infallible truth as to his soul’s needs, 
dangers, etc., that God gave us the Bible. 
We will not take the time to look at it 
now, but it would be very easy indeed to 
show you that just as all correct hygienic 
teachings are based on natural law, so 
there is a ‘natural law’ reason for every 


62 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


commandment in God’s Word. What the 
hygienic laws of Moses were to the bodies 
of the people, just that is what the great 
commandments, given to men through 
Moses, were to the souls of men! And, 
just as in keeping those ‘thou shalts’ and 
‘thou shalt nots’ concerning what to eat 
and not eat, do and not do, that ignorant 
mob just out of bondage in Egypt escaped 
all those diseases that otherwise would 
have strewn their bones over the desert 
sand during the forty years’ wanderings; 
so would they have been saved from 
spiritual woes innumerable had they kept 
the great moral laws given for the safety 
of their souls. 

“The Ten Commandments are simply 
the great hygienic laws of the soul of man! 

And nothing could be easier than to show 
you the underlying philosophy beneath 
each and every one of them. 

“But in spite of this, in spite of the 
added warnings, exhortations, appeals, 


63 



W HO WAS JESUS? 


man is ofttimes found in the way of 
error. 

“There is a way that seemeth right unto 
a man, but the ends thereof are the ways 
of death,’ says God’s Word. ‘Be not de¬ 
ceived, God cannot be mocked’ (ignored, 
His warning treated with contempt), ‘for 
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
also reap,’ cries Paul. 

“Again and again do we see these warn¬ 
ings in the Book, all showing us that pre¬ 
cisely as man’s mind has no necessary con¬ 
nection with his bodily state, that he may 
think himself safe while, in fact, he is in 
deadly danger, just so may he be on the 
road to spiritual death and have no con¬ 
scious feeling of his true ‘condition,’ etc. 
Every day of our lives we see men of 
sound reason, making such mistakes as to 
the facts about them that they suffer and 
die prematurely, when had they had cor¬ 
rect knowledge they would have escaped. 
Man needs Divine guidance, in matters 


64 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


pertaining to his soul’s life and needs. 
There can be no question as to that, if he 
would safely cross the shifting sands of 
life and reach the haven at last. And God 
has provided this very guidance! Just as 
there is not a single need in man’s nature 
but that has its answer in the world about 
him, so is the answer to this need provided 
by his Creator. The answer to the old 
question, ‘Why will ye die?’ is not to be 
found either in God’s indifference or in 
His lack of ability to provide life for man. 

“But now, Judge, just as there seems to 
be at least three classes of ‘truth,’ so are 
there three ways by which we test things 
said to be true. We use these three ways 
every day in the affairs of life, and we are 
not asked to use our minds in any strange 
or unusual manner when we come to the 
saving of our souls. 

“Those people who say man is asked to 
‘quit reasoning,’ to act in an ‘irrational, 
unusual manner’ by the church and the 


65 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


clergy who would lead them to Christ, are 
simply misstating the facts. 

Christianity is the one strictly scientific 
religion! It insists that a man follow pre¬ 
cisely the same processes to learn its truth, 
that he does to learn any real truth of 
nature. But allow me to say here, before 
I go further, that no man can hope to learn 
the truth in any realm of knowledge if he 
is unwilling to make his investigations in 
that realm! You could never teach an 
astronomer farming if he refused to take 
his gaze off the heavens, and you could 
not teach a bookkeeper mechanics if he 
refused to even look at a tool or a book 
showing their use. 

“Just so, you cannot show a man the 
truths of God’s revelation, if he insists that 
he be allowed to keep his eyes on the earth, 
or if he refuses to even look honestly in 
the direction the truth, he needs, lies. All 
any man is asked by his Lord is that he 
be honest! Honest with that simple, 


66 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


humble willingness to be led that he must 
exhibit if he learns the simplest facts in 
the world about him. If a man is vain 
enough to believe that ‘there can be noth¬ 
ing in this,’ no ‘highly intelligent man can 
stoop to even consider this,’ etc.; if he has 
such an attitude of mind as that toward 
this truth, there is no more chance for him 
knowing than there would be if he had 
that same attitude toward anything else he 
did not know. 

“But how do we ordinarily test the 
truth of statements made to us, or things 
we do not know? 

“We have three ways. 

“First: There is the way of Specula¬ 
tion, the way of reason. 

“Second: The way of Testimony, the 
way of the courts. 

“Third: The way of Experiment, the 
way of common life as well as the way of 
science. 

“Allow me to illustrate these things. 


67 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


“Suppose I am traveling, and I find my 
path comes to a deep chasm, or rift in the 
earth. There is no bridge in sight, and it 
is too wide for me to jump. Down yon¬ 
der I see a long plank spanning the chasm, 
and it seems to be my only way across. 
But the question is, ‘Can I safely risk it? 
Will that plank sustain my weight?’ Now 
there are three ways by which I might 
learn about this plank. 

“First, the way of speculation, the way 
of the school. Let us just assume that I 
have this ‘knowledge’ and that, therefore, 
I am informed as to the ‘breaking strength’ 
of the various woods. I ‘know’ what each 
class is supposed to sustain, and what 
poundage it will resist per inch. Let us 
suppose, too, that I am able to compute 
the inches in this particular plank and I 
thus learn that this plank belongs to a cer¬ 
tain wood that has a breaking strength of 
25 pounds per inch, and having 24 inches 


68 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


in each lineal inch, will sustain a weight 
of 600 pounds. 

I have thus ‘learned’ that this plank 
will hold me up, as I do not weigh 600 
pounds. That is, it will, provided all my 
knowledge’ is correct; provided my men¬ 
tal processes are accurate; provided there 
are no hidden knots, nor cross grained 
places, nor rotten spots, you see. ‘Pro¬ 
vided a number of things, 1 have learned 
that that plank will hold my weight, BUT, 
with all this ‘knowledge’ 1 am not yet over 
that chasm! I am simply a ‘learned man’ 
on the wrong side of that hole, that’s all! 

“Then there is another common way 
by which we ‘learn.’ 

“I come to that rift, see that plank, but 
this time I have neither ‘knowledge’ nor 
ability to learn in any such way what that 
plank is supposed to hold. But yonder 
are some men. I call to them: ‘Friends! 
Will that plank hold me up?’ ‘Sure!’ they 
reply. ‘How do you know?’ ‘We all 


69 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


came over on it, and several of us are 
heavy as you are!’ they reply. 

“There, you see, I have witnesses testi¬ 
fying to me as to that plank’s strength. 
Witnesses! That’s the way we get much 
of our ‘information’ in this world. 

“You sit in court and hear the testimony 
of men who tell things you had no knowl¬ 
edge whatever about. You believe what 
they say, they are unimpeached, and so 
you come to know that this or that is 
true. You act on that knowledge and 
many a time have you taken a man’s free¬ 
dom from him, sent him to prison, because 
you say, ‘You did this or that, contrary to 
law!’ Is it not true that possibly most of 
what we ‘know’ comes thus? 

“Now allow me to ask you, Judge; is 
there a single fact in all this world that 
has as many ‘witnesses’ testifying to its 
verity as this one—‘Jesus is the Son of 
God!’ Did ever any truth have so much 
evidence of this sort to sustain it? Are 


70 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


not these witnesses of as high grade, of 
as much intelligence, as any who ever tes¬ 
tified concerning anything in the world? 

“Have they not shown every mark re¬ 
quired of true witnesses according to the 
rules of our common law, namely: 

“The credit due the testimony of wit¬ 
nesses depends upon: First, their hon¬ 
esty; second, their ability; third, their 
number and consistency of their testi¬ 
mony; fourth, the conformity of their 
testimony with experience (here note that 
only those could have ‘experience’ who 
have given themselves the chance to have 
it) ; fifth, the coincidence of their testi¬ 
mony with collateral evidence. 

“These are the rules Greenleaf lays 
down. Do not the witnesses who testify 
to you concerning the power of Christ in 
their lives meet these requirements? The 
shelves of your library could not hold the 
books needed to record the bare names of 
the men and women whose lives have 


71 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


proved both their sanity and their upright¬ 
ness, and who testify to you that they have 
had personal knowledge as to the super¬ 
natural power of Jesus Christ to transform 
men. 

“You cannot account for human his¬ 
tory, or explain many of the most re¬ 
markable facts history records, if you 
leave this out. 

“The world has been transformed by 
men who had themselves been trans¬ 
formed by this wonderful thing, ‘faith in 
the Deity of Christ!’ 

“You meet these men daily. You be¬ 
lieve them on all other matters. You im¬ 
prison, you even send men to the gallows 
on their testimony. Why can you not be¬ 
lieve them when they testify of this other 
thing they know? Is it because you can¬ 
not believe a thing that you have not your¬ 
self personally had experience of? If so, 
do you apply that rule to all other things? 
Did you ever see a man murdered? Ever 


72 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


travel around the earth, and thus prove to 
yourself that it is a globe? No, you do 
not thus apply your mental powers. 

Thousands of men have become fully 
convinced that Jesus was the Christ, thru 
the testimony of these witnesses and from 
their clear reasoning on the subject; and 
if you will pardon me, it does seem strange 
to me that a mind like yours, a mind that 
acts so rightly, that reaches such correct 
conclusions on the questions of life, that 
such a mind has not long ago seen the 
falsity of your position! 

“It is a strange intellect to me that does 
not see facts worthy of consideration in 
Jesus of Nazareth! When I hear a man 
say, ‘I am not interested, I care nothing 
about Him,* I cannot understand that type 
of man. I can see how an animal, without 
soul, without mental or moral faculties, 
can live to eat and play and die, unmoved 
by the mighty facts of God, but not a man. 

“It is no surprise, therefore, that Napo- 


73 



WHO WAS J E SUS? 


leon, banished to St. Helena, thought 
much of Jesus. It is no surprise that this 
great mind, torn away forever from the 
opportunity of being exercised in govern¬ 
ing men, should have cast about for some 
subject worthy of its attention, and that 
it should have been fixed on the Man of 
the Ages, Jesus Christ. 

“And when such a mind thinks sanely, 
acts as its God created it to act, there can 
be but one result, but one conclusion, 
regardless of what the Will may after¬ 
ward do. 

“Speaking to his faithful friend, Gen¬ 
eral Bertrand, Napoleon gave a long state¬ 
ment of his reasons for believing Christ to 
be Divine. I quote but a small part of his 
argument. 

“ ‘My last argument is this: There is 
not a God in heaven, if a “mere man” was 
able to conceive and execute successfully 
the gigantic design of making himself the 
object of supreme worship or usurping the 


74 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


name of God. Jesus alone dared to do 
this. He alone said clearly and unfalter¬ 
ingly of himself, “I am God”; which is 
quite different from saying, ‘‘I am a God,” 
or, “there are Gods.” History mentions 
no other individual who has appropriated 
to himself the title of God in the abso¬ 
lute sense. How then could a Jew, the 
particulars of whose history are better 
attested than that of any of his contem¬ 
poraries, how should he alone, the son of 
a carpenter, give out all at once that he 
was God, the Creator of all things?’ 

“ ‘He arrogates to himself the highest 
adoration. He constructs His worship 
with His own hands; not with stones, but 
with men. You are amazed at the con¬ 
quests of Alexander, but here is the Con¬ 
queror who appropriates to His own ad¬ 
vantage. Who incorporates with Him¬ 
self, not a nation, but the human race. 
And how? By a prodigy surpassing all 
others, he seeks the love of men, the most 


75 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


difficult thing in the world to obtain. He 
seeks what a wise man would fain have 
from a few friends; in a word, the heart; 
this he seeks, this he absolutely requires, 
and He gains His object! Hence 1 infer 
His divinity.’ 

“ ‘Alexander, Caesar, Hannibal, Louis 
XIV, with all their genius failed here. 
They conquered the world and had not a 
friend. The founders of other religions 
never conceived of this mystical love, 
which is the essence of Christianity, and 
which is beautifully called charity. Hence 
it is that they have struck upon a rock. 
In every attempt to effect this thing, 
namely, to make himself beloved, man 
feels his own impotence. 

“ ‘So this is Christ’s greatest miracle. 
All who sincerely believe in Him, taste 
this wonderful, supernatural, exalted love, 
which is beyond the power of reason, 
above the ability of man; this sacred fire 
brought down to earth by this new Prome- 


76 




WHO W A S JESUS? 


theus, and of which time, the great de- 
stroyer, can neither exhaust the force nor 
limit the duration. The more I think of 
this the more I admire it. It convinces me 
absolutely of the Deity of Christ. 

My life once shone with all the bril¬ 
liance of the diadem and the throne; as 
the dome of the “Invalides” gilt by me, 
reflects the sun. But the god gradually 
became dim, and now all the brightness 
is effaced by the rain of misfortune and 
the outrage with which 1 am continually 
pelted. I am mere lead now, and shall 
soon be in my grave. Such is the fate of 
great men. So it was with Caesar and 
Alexander, so it will be with me. What 
wide abyss between my deep misery and 
the eternal kingdom of Christ, which is 
proclaimed, loved, adored and which is 
extending over all the earth! I know men, 
and I tell you that Jesus is not a man.’ 

“I wonder, Judge, why you have not 


77 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


been forced by these same arguments to 
come to this same conclusion? 

“But even this is not all the evidence 
God gives us that Jesus of Nazareth was 
His Son! The final and conclusive test 
is yet to be made. A test that is admitted 
by all men everywhere to be wholly con¬ 
clusive. No matter how untenable a 
theory may sound; no matter how ‘un¬ 
reasonable’ it may appear, the final test 
always is, DOES IT WORK? 

“Let us return to my illustration of the 
plank and the chasm. 

“Again I come to that chasm that stops 
my travels. This time we must admit 
that I have no knowledge whatever on the 
subject of the breaking strength of the 
various woods. 1 have no idea what this 
plank should hold up. Neither are there 
any witnesses to be seen. What am I to 
do? What can I do? There is one way 
by which I can surely find out, and that 

is, GET OUT ON THAT PLANK AND 


78 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


SEE WHAT IT CAN DO! Desperate 
method? Maybe in a case like this, but, 
note this, when I have crossed over that 
chasm, I KNOW! No wise scoffer can 
ever convince me that that plank cannot 
or did not hold my weight! I was over 
yonder, I am now over here. I KNOW. 
True, I am unable to explain how the 
plank got its wonderful strength, or why 
it did not break. I can be asked many 
questions that I am wholly unable to an¬ 
swer, but one thing I DO know, IT HELD 
ME UP! 

“Take one more illustration. I am sick, 
the doctor comes and says, ‘You have ma¬ 
laria/ 

“ ‘What is malaria, doctor?’ 

“ ‘Well, it’s a bug disease. Old sister 
Anopheles of the ’skeeter tribe has been 
to see you and she left a bug in you when 
she departed. Now that bug has won¬ 
derful power of reproduction, and it has 
now produced a large family, millions of 


79 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


’em, in fact, and they are working on your 
blood, and that causes your trouble.’ 

“ ‘Well, doctor, can the trouble be 
cured?” 

“ ‘Yes, it can be cured all right, that is, 
by ‘scientific treatment,’ you understand. 
The remedy is quinine. It is extracted 
from the bark of a tree that grows down 
in Peru. It is deadly to the malaria bug 
when taken right, and this, followed up 
by other poisons, effects a cure.* ‘Now, 
do you feel any better?’ 

‘No, doctor, I still have that pain in 
my back,* I say. 

“ ‘What, still aches!’ 

‘‘Now you know, judge, that what a 
sick man needs is something more than 
information.’ He needs a remedy that 
will reach the seat of his troubles! 

“If a starving man should be offered 
food that he happened to know nothing 
of, that he had never seen before, but that 
he was told was perfectly wholesome food, 


80 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


how would he best discover the truth 
about it? Certainly not by subjecting it 
to chemical analysis, to learn its compo¬ 
nent parts. That would ‘inform’ his mind, 
but it would not add much to his strength. 
Neither would the man be likely to derive 
much good from the food if he took it in 
his hand, and held it ever so long! The 
hand is not the organ of digestion, you 
know. But if he will allow his stomach 
a chance at the food, it will very soon de¬ 
termine whether it is digestible and good 
or not, and powers within him, entirely 
beyond his ‘reason,’ will take possession 
of that food and apply it to his need as 
God intended. Just so it is with some 
truths that we need in the spiritual realm. 
It is the soul that is sick, not the mind. 
The remedy we need is not merely a cor¬ 
rection of our misconceptions concerning 
truth, right and wrong, self, God, etc., but 
an application of a remedy that will reach 


81 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


down into the very vitals of the soul, 
where the disease of sin is at work. 

“Jesus Christ is offered to the soul of 
man as a remedy for sin, and not merely 
to the intellect of man for his enlighten¬ 
ment, etc. 

“The natural man, in his self-conceit, 
insists that all he needs is ‘knowledge.’ 
That he can do all things himself if he only 
knows how, and he is also of the opinion 
that he can find out all the ‘hows,’ too, if 
he just has time enough! Satan’s first as¬ 
sault on man’s soul was along these lines. 
He told Eve, ‘Ye shall be as Gods, know¬ 
ing,’ etc., and the race seems to have been 
thoroughly convinced that, whatever else 
it might lack, it didn’t lack power to do all 
it needed. Our conceit has caused us to 
think that we could understand all things, 
so that when there come to us things that 
we do not understand, we are inclined to 
stand back and act like they could not pos¬ 
sibly be true. Many of the things we 


82 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


‘know’ most thoroughly, most helpfully, 
we cannot and do not try to understand. 

“1 certainly do not ‘understand’ the 
wonderful processes that take place every 
day within me, but I know they do it! I 
do not understand digestion, assimilation, 
transmutation, how I retain my equilib¬ 
rium, how I think, what keeps my heart 
going, how I hear, taste, feel, love. In 
fact, when I come to think of it, there are 
quite a good many things I find I do not 
understand! But I know these things are 
true within me! Metabolism is a ‘mys¬ 
tery,’ but it is a fact. 

“So, when some wise man says to me, 
‘McConnell, you are foolish to believe that 
that dead Jew really lives, or that you are 
really saved by him,* I just reply, ‘Maybe 
so; I may seem foolish to you, but I know 
it just the same!’ 

“And now, Judge, will you allow me to 
forget your position, your dignity, your 
rare attainments, and say to you just this: 


83 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


‘You are face to face with the acid test, 
not only of the truth of God’s word and 
the facts concerning Jesus, but you are 
face to face with the acid test as to your 
own honesty!’ 

“You cannot escape this. If you are 
an honest seeker after truth; if you are 
not a mere quibber, haggling over words 
that have little meaning, if they do not 
lead to action; then you must honestly 
face the test your God has provided by 
which you may know! Hear what Jesus 
says: 

“ ‘If any man will do His will, he shall 
know of the doctrine, whether it be of 
God, or whether I speak of myself’ (John 
7:17). ‘IF ANY MAN WILL DO!’ That 

means you! 

“Judge, HAVE YOU EVER GIVEN 
JESUS A SQUARE DEAL? 

“Did you ever give God a chance at 
your heart? Did you ever give Him a 
chance to prove to you, down deep in your 


84 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


soul, that Christ was His Son? Are not 
the speculative, the historical evidences 
concerning this Jesus enough to show you 
that He must have been more than a mere 
man? Do you not think that you owe it 
to Him, to yourself, to the truth itself, at 
least to give Him a fair chance to show 
you if He can do so? WILL YOU GIVE 
JESUS A SQUARE DEAL!” 

The judge was not arguing any more 
now. Honest men do not argue for argu¬ 
ment’s sake; and he said: 

“What should 1 do?” 

“As an honest man, surrender your 
heart to Him. Ask God to lead you; be 
willing to follow where He may lead you. 
Give His word the credit of meaning what 
it says. Believe it, act on it. If you 
needed an operation you would select a 
surgeon whom you trusted and surrender. 
You would not need to know; that is his 
part. If he knows, you do right simply 
to submit to him. I do not know how to 


85 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


run an engine, so 1 simply take a seat in 
the train and let the engineer run it. 1 
do not know how to digest my food, but 
my stomach does, so 1 give it the food, 
that is not its part, but it does its part 
when I give it the chance. I cannot 
explain to your intellect the wonderful 
processes of regeneration, the New Birth, 
but if you will open your heart to God, 
He will attend to that, and you can experi¬ 
ence and enjoy that blessing. Accept the 
Lord Jesus and follow Him. That is what 
you should do. Give Jesus a square deal. 

“Shall I give you some scripture? Here 
are but a few of many scriptures of similar 
import, and that are given to guide honest 
seekers to the Way of Life.” 

“Let the wicked forsake his way, and 
the unrighteous man his thought; and let 
him return to the Lord and He will have 
mercy upon him, and unto our God, for 
He will abundantly pardon.’’ 

“For My thoughts are not your 


86 




WHO WAS JESUS? 


thoughts, neither are your ways My 
ways, saith the Lord.” 

‘‘For as the heavens are higher than the 
earth, so are My ways higher than 
your ways, and My thoughts than your 
thoughts.” Isaiah 55; 7-9. 

‘‘Come unto Me, all ye that labour and 
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 
Take My yoke upon you and learn of 
Me, . . . and ye shall find rest unto 

your souls.” Matt. 1 1 ; 28-29. 

‘‘He (Jesus) came unto His own, and 
His own (the Jews) received Him not.” 

‘‘But as many as received Him, to them 
gave He power to become the sons of 
God, even to them that believed on his 
name.” John 1 ; 1 1-22. 

‘‘If thou shalt confess with thy mouth 
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine 
heart that God hath raised Him from the 
dead, thou shalt be saved.” 

‘‘For with the heart man believeth unto 
righteousness; and with the mouth con- 


87 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


fession is made unto salvation.” 

“For the scripture saith, Whosoever be- 
lieveth on Him shall not be ashamed.” 
Romans 10; 9-13. 

These and many other scriptures I gave 
him. 

The judge did not go to the tabernacle 
that night, but the next night he came in 
and stood with others during the entire 
service. When 1 gave the call for men to 
come to the front who would publicly ac¬ 
cept Jesus as their Lord and Master, he 
came. Several small girls had come ahead 
of him—and when he reached the front 
seat he said, “Dearies, let me sit down 
here with you, I feel like this is just where 
I belong.” And the children, who all 
knew and loved him, gladly made room 
and he sat among them, accepting the 
same Jesus who said, “Except a man re¬ 
ceive the Kingdom of God as a little child, 
he shall not enter therein.” (Mark 10:15.) 

The next time I saw Judge Blank was 


88 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


nearly ten years later. 

1 was to speak on their Chautauqua pro¬ 
gram, the train was late and I was rushed 
onto the platform and began speaking. 
The first person 1 recognized in the audi¬ 
ence was the judge. Older now, grayer, 
but with a great peace in his face. His 
was the first hand I shook after speaking, 
and, as I held his hand, I asked, “Judge, 
how is it?” He looked me in the face, put 
his hand over his heart, and said, “Brother 
McConnell, I know that Jesus is the Son 
of God!” 

Two years later, when holding meetings 
in another state, his son came into the 
meetings, and I asked about the judge. 

“Did you not know that father was 
dead?” he asked. 

I had not heard it and asked about his 
end. He said the judge was perfectly con¬ 
scious to the last. After bidding good-bye 
and assuring them of his readiness to go, 
telling them how sweet it was to have a 


89 



WHO WAS JESUS? 


Saviour in this hour, he gradually sank to 
sleep. The last words he was heard to 
utter were these: ‘T know—that—Jesus 

—is the Son of-And 1 believe he 

uttered that glad, glorious truth, “God,” 
when he had passed from the world of 
faith and doubt to the world of perfect 
sight. 

Oh, men of Oklahoma City, you hard 
rushed, you hard working, busy men of 
affairs; you men who “have little time to 
think” outside of your business, your pro¬ 
fession; you men whose shoulders bear 
heavy burdens for those you love, whose 
minds are wearied with the hard problems 
of life; let me ask you tonight if you will 
not let this Jesus who loves you help carry 
your load? He loves you! He loves you! 

GIVE HIM A SQUARE DEAL! 









































































> * 




















The Lincoln McConnell 
SQUARE DEAL LECTURES 

Uniform Series 

Who Was Jesus? 


“WHY THE BIBLE WAS WRITTEN” 


“The Philosophy of the Moral Law” 


“DOES MAN NEED DIVINE 
GUIDANCE?” 


“WILL THE OLD BOOK STAND?” 


“Has Science Destroyed the Bible?” 


“THE GOLDEN KEY” 


Obtainable of 

Glad Tidings Publishing Co. 

207 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago 


LINCOLN McCONNELL, Thomaston, Ga. 









L1BKRRY OF CONGRESS 



0 000 819 150 5 











































